The User's Guide to Campaign Battling
Welcome to The User's Guide to Campaign Battling! This is the veritable plethora of personal strategies (listed by Job) to not only make Campaign more fun, but also maximize experience gained without the need for testing and exact results. For those of you wishing to enhance this page, the rules are simple, just be sure to read the proper section further down. On top of that, this guide will also cover Campaign basics for those of us unfamiliar with the event. And now without further ado.... What is Campaign? Campaign is the official title of the Allied Forces War Effort. It includes the actual act of Campaign Battles, Campaign Ops which range from simple supply running to full scale battle royales against the Beastman Forces, to even just aiding the townsfolk in a time of incredible strife. To most players, Campaign is a nickname for the battles, and is also the meat of this guide. Okay, so what are battles? Campaign Battles are the easiest way to join the war effort. The only requirements are that you can breathe, are level 10, and are allied to one of the 3 nations in the shadowreign era. You can go anywhere and fight, and its tons of fun to boot, and on top of that you don't lose exp when you die. The whole point of battling is to preserve (or gain in most cases) allied rank, from lowly ribbons to the mighty medals. Rank brings power, as higher ranks allow for larger rewards at the end of battles by increasing the maximum limit. However these rewards aren't guaranteed, as you have to earn them in ways that players will describe below. Higher ranks also allow better campaign ops, which in turn also allow for better rewards (in some cases rare and powerful equipment). New types of ranks also unlock new gear for the cost of Allied Notes, most of which is very nice in its own right. Types of Battles Defensive: The Beastman are attacking, and its up to you to defend the Allied Outpost in the area. The idea of defensive battles are to defeat all attacking soldiers while preventing them from attacking Allied fortifications. These battles only occur in areas controlled by the Allied Forces (as the name suggests) and tend to be the most common type of battle for San D'Oria on Quetzalcoatl, as it has the most people allied to it for Angelstones and Deathstones rewarded during the WotG missions. The Campaign Op based on these is "Aegis Scream". Offensive: You are attacking, and it lies on your well-traveled shoulders to take over this area for the Allies. The idea is exactly the opposite of a defensive battle, but the general strategy is to defeat all the defenders and begin assaulting the fortification to reduce control. These battles are most common in the Dungeon areas (like Eldieme) due to the fact that fortification and defender are forced into close proximity of each other. The Campaign Op related to this is "Smokescreen". Campaign Camping There are 2 ways to go about waiting for Campaigns. 1) Zone Camping: Zone Camping is exactly how it sounds, you pick a place and hang out there until a Campaign Battle starts. This is the preferred choice of players saving up allied notes, or players who want to keep their TP for use in other battles once that one is done. The only downside is that you have no idea when a Campaign can start, and it can get very boring unless you bring along crafting materials or decide to farm in the area. The upside is that you will be one of the first people there, as there is a lag between when a battle starts and when the regional map updates. Before a major update, there was a sub-category to this called "Fortification Camping". The entire goal of that was to smack Forts until offensive battles ended, netting incredible amounts of experience points to even the most inexperienced players, as long as they could hit it. The update reduced exp maximum of hitting forts to 200, regardless of what you do to it and regardless of rank. 2) City Camping: To my knowledge this is the single most common way of doing Campaigns, and also the most versatile way to do it. The idea behind this is to allow warping to any area where a campaign might occur. Also, there are frequent status reports of the war effort, announcing when any platoon attacks or defends and whenever any platoon leader (both beastman and Allied) has fallen in battle. These updates, combined with frequent checks of the regional map, allows for the maximum amount of freedom when choosing a location to dole out your brand of pain or comfort. The downsides of this is that you are stuck doing nothing if there is a rather dry spell in battles, as well as the cost of warping which can add up if you miss several campaigns. The upside is that you can go anywhere at anytime, and have several briefs that just aren't there if you camp a zone. Campaign Roles Just like parties, there are roles to play in Campaign. The only difference is that these roles aren't as set in stone because death doesn't really mean anything except weakened. Damage Dealer:Anyone can be a DD in Campaign, and the jobs meant for that excel where others only shine. Other than that, its the exact same as DDing a party. Weapon Skill a bunch, and generally just hurt things. Black Mages are the only exception, as they DD with spells, but its the same principle. Debuffer:This is for jobs capable of doing nasty things to the monsters without directly harming them. Dancer excels here, both as support job and main job, but doesn't nearly have the variety of red mage, white mage, or even black mage. Healer:Your entire purpose is to ease pain. Throw cures like mad, revive the fallen, and hope that NM doesn't come running your way. White Mages are obviously the master of this, and Dancers are surprisingly useless here (unless you are in a party), but anyone who can cure and raise can be a healer. Tank: Only the stoic of heart need apply, but anyone with the proper support (or the right job) can tank. Paladin and Ninja do well here, no doubt due to the practice of partying. But I have seen Thieves and Dancers do nicely as well, and once even a White Mage. Hold hate however you can, and be sure to not die, as lots of people are counting on you to live. The Soloist: Any job well-suited to handling things all alone will do well here. To be a soloist, just pull away from the main battle to a place where you won't get links or aggro. This job combines aspects of every single role all at once, and can be very difficult unless you know what you are doing. Red Mage does well here, but I've never seen any other job try this and can't really vouch for anyone else. Combination: Some jobs are just meant to do lots of things, and like stated before no role is set in stone. A combination role is any mix of the above, and any mix will be discussed by an individual person's experiences. Strategies by Job And now for the best part, the input added by everyone! First there are some rules. Your Name Your Rank (if you really want to, not necessary for this) Sub-job(s) of choice Your Strategy, be as exact or as vague as you want, its what you do in battles. Please be sure to add an approximate average of your EXP reward, or a number range (such as 500-2000). And Now we can begin! Bard Vilucha (Bismarck) /WHM First grab/build a party of melee or whatever you can get at the campaign battle. Second, equip your Faerie Piccolo (March +2) and start bombing your March songs. Sing Elegy, Requiem, and throw Finale when needed on whatever mob your group is fighting. Throw Cure, Protect, Shell, and Raise the fallen to fill out the gaps. I personally run re-raise just if the fight goes completely wrong. You might need to Lullaby the adds, or go and fetch another mob for your group. Currently at 65 I get between 1900-2200 XP for a full battle. My best XP was 2800. This is a quick easy way to pickup some XP when you don't have a lot of time to game. Chasuro (Bismarck) /NIN Solo /WHM is fine, I chose /NIN so I didn't have to mess with Stoneskin and Blink. I started Campaign for BRD at level 73. Equiped Joyeuse and attack gear. Chiv Chain, Haste belt, O Hat, etc. I chose Blade Madrigal or Valor Minuet, Victory March and spammed Magic Finale. Spirits Within does decent damage and you gain tp very quickly. Got the kill many times. Lots of fun and real lazy style! 700 - 3500 xp depending on how many waves of mobs. Beastmaster Zellos (Unicorn) /DNC, /WHM Grab a pet, either local or a Carrie. Find and pull a mob to the side or just join a group of people attacking and go to town on it. Rinse and repeat, keep yourself and your pet alive (drain samba, cure/waltz, pet food). I'm still kinda new to really doing decent in the battles but my best exp was around 1800 (was /DNC for that one). Black Mage As a black mage you can Melee here. Make sure you put stoneskin up and would be recommended to come /rdm to enfeeble or kite mobs in case things get ugly. Note that nearly everything in Campaign can be Aspir'd for decent amounts of MP. Try to get kill shots on monsters for added experience points. Pikeruichi /SCH Coming /sch gives you two benefits 1) you get sublimation, which keeps you from resting during the battle and 2) Stratagems (specifically Alacrity) are a great way to sneak in that final blow on a mob. Slap on your best staff (I like to use Pluto's to boost my drain and aspir) and close in. Refresh gear is also recommended. Attacking, using elemental debuffs/bioII/poison II and dispel, along with a few well placed nukes, averages me anywhere between 1.5 - just under 3k exp. While it might not be your cup of tea, taking some damage and curing yourself really ups the exp, so don;t be afraid to pull hate every once in a while if you can handle it (any time I tank a mob on blm, I get over 2.2k easy) Blue Mage Kollosis (Shiva) /NIN, /THF, /WAR, /DNC, /SCH - Blu is hella fun in campaign and your subs are up to you for the most part, you have plenty of options so choose what you think is more comfortable! The main role Blu plays is Campaign is DD. and with Warrior or Thief subs you can really crank out the numbers. So i would recommend those subs if you wanna see some nice dmg and some nice exp resulting from it, however don't bring too much hate to yourself unless you plan on tanking. Other subs include nin, dnc, and sch. Nin is very nice in campaign, allowing the use of shadows will help you become a great tank at higher lvls. i have tanked many mobs in campaign including some NMs. Having Utsusemi: Ni and utilizing the spells Actinic Burst or Sandspray to tank will increase your survivability greatly. Stack some EVA gear on there if you plan on tanking also. DNC sub is pretty self-explanatory, just as any job subbing dnc, utilize sambas and and keep yourself alive. And finally is /SCH which is personally my favorite in close competition to /NIN. /SCH is extremely fun giving you many options in campaign. You can virtually fight forever with this sub by using Sublimation and Aspir to keep your MP up. Also another quick cure option is to use Dark Arts > Alacrity > Drain on the mob your fighting, which allows to drain twice w/o having to wait so long. Pretty much at the beginning get RR up whether it be from a scroll or /sch sub and stay alive. my general amount of exp ranges from 1k-3k using a variety of subs. Have fun and GL ^^ Defiledsickness (Pandemonium) Blu/sch. I start sublimation as soon as I get through a maw and cast regen until it's full of mp (I don't set Metallic Body for more +stat spells). Then Parsimony and reraise and protect+shell. Once into a battle I use dark arts casting MP Drainkiss whenever Burst Affinity is up (first use after spending around 100mp). You can skillchain and magic burst MP Drainkiss for more MP gained but I don't like equipping Sickle Slash. Setting spells and gear for str (dot with sword) and dex (dmg per skillchain with Hysteric Barrage). +Agi is good for when you get hate and +Mnd (with light arts) is good if you're in a party and will be curing (really good if at lower levels). I try my best not to tank and only purposely get hate to save someone that is keeping a mob from killing me. The combination of high mp cost spells and low hate allows you to gain a bunch of XP raising people when a boss is the only thing left to pull :p (500-2000 xp ~short battles and long fortification fights). /thf would be my suggestion for high xp gains (and a tank or dnc in your party). Corsair Unineko /nin, /dnc, /rng A well-equipped corsair can do well in campaign (I once got ~3500 xp from a single long battle at level 58), dealing damage through melee, slug shot, quick draw, or a combination of all three. Unfortunately, Phantom Rolls only affect party members, limiting it's utility. If you see a cor getting tags, by all means offer to group up with him, as their buffs will help you, and you'll be giving them the chance to gain experience and notes through buffs as well. Dancer InfamousDS Golden Star /nin I like to camp 1 zone, and farm seals while I wait. This lets me keep TP for the start of the next battle and also lets me get some okay exp and cash in non-seal drops. When the battle starts I get a RR scroll from the guy and buff up as much as I can w/o spending any TP. Once the mobs show up, I use Haste Samba (2 merits into it) and spam quickstep until I get 5 finishing moves. I use Dancing Edge, then Reverse Flourish, then I start spamming steps again. Once Quick hits Lv.5, I stop and start using Box, always repeating my cycle of 5 finishing moves -> Dancing Edge -> Reverse -> Steps. I heal as needed and always keep Haste on me. Very reliable way to do Campaign. 600-3000exp, cap exp only in very short battles. Dark Knight Erinyes (Carbuncle) /THF Until you get into the mid-60 levels, you probably won't be doing much damage or even hitting often. That's where the /THF comes in; Sneak Attack guarantees a hit and a critical hit at that. It's the only way I can reliably do any sort of damage. Don't count on enfeebles sticking, so if you feel like adding a few extra HP of damage on, cast Fire or whatever the mob is vulnerable to. Drain and Aspir work, though about as well as can be expected at your level. Pretty straightforward job: just hit stuff, and hide behind the tanks. More on this later! Dragoon Shienar /mage Soloist: Bring your af helm, and go kill those mobs solo as you would anny other normal mob. advice either zone-camp and make sure you have a wyvern or bring saurian/relic helm. any wyvern hp gear is also nice. my feeling on difficulty is from easy to hard, yags/quad/orc/kindred/black mages. I average on 1.5k a mob i solo fully. sigil refresh is a must. Hate is a issue at times you want to tank not your wyvern except if you have recast ready and are getting interrupted all the time, and need that Healing Breath to get off, if so Super-jump else i try not to use high-jump except as a opening the fight move. Will say difficulty of yags/quad/orcs are around sea-puck's to greater colibri. hit's are weaker but they last much longer. Do not advice kindred forces without good gear, never been able to take down one of those solo myself and had to super-jump disengage and run for help those times i tried. Erwing (Cerberus) /SAM or /BLU(preferred, any /mage will work) If you know the battle you're heading you had defending NPCs for heals, or if you have healing support with you, go /SAM and take full advantage of your DPS potential. If you're solo and unsure of the status of the battle you're going to, go /mage, /BLU preferred for Cocoon and fast-casting, low MP Healing Breath trigger spells. Obviously, have your AF helm ready, and, if applicable, Saurian or Relic helm and Wyvern HP gear with all your Healing Breath macros ready to go. If you have any solo experience at all you can handle CB with minimal difficulty, just avoid the NMs at all costs, as they tend to have many damaging AoE abilities that will drop your wyvern in seconds, which leaves you with no way to heal yourself unless you're /DNC or have a healer with you. At 75, DRG/BLU is pretty much god-mode in CB, since you'll have the DPS potential of a DRG, enhanced tanking ability from Cocoon, and the infinite curing power of Healing Breath, given you can keep your wyvern alive. I'm Windurst-allied so when I CB it's usually against Yagudo, which seem to be pretty easy. You just have to watch out for the AoE stun, since it can both injure your wyvern and, if timed badly, get you killed. Just pop Healing Breath whenever possible to keep HP up and you should be fine. Generally, at 75, I get anywhere from 2-5k per CB with Steelknight Emblem, for a reasonable battle. Zyraxas (Ragnarok) Medal of Altana /SAM & /DNC For /SAM, primarily keeping Seigan and Third Eye up and being mindful of timers on all job abilities to ensure maximum TP gain at every opportunity. Primarily using relic armor w/turban and cosciales for additional tp gain and speed, rose strap being the helpful end-all towards ensuring weaponskill after weaponskill. General switching around with /SAM and /DNC from the quite frequent happenings of ending up tanking, wyvern primarily used for that little extra damage or a spirit surge if things turn south fast. Usual Campaign xp from a reasonable battle 3-5k Monk Andret 75 Remora /Dnc, /Nin (with a healer tagging along) Mnk is probably best suited with /Dnc in campaign. Drain Samba II combine with Mnk's punching speed can regenerate a lot of HP (better than Regen II). A well equipped Mnk/Dnc can tank most campaign mobs solo and probably kill 2-3 of them solo before the battle ends. This can net a Mnk capped campaign exp for any battle that earn them less than 3-4k exp. Highest exp I have gotten in a single battle is 4.2k; most 1 wave battles are around 1k, 2 waves can pump it to 2k. If your Mnk is well equipped, you would be tanking most of the time in campaign. Avoid Orcs at all costs, esp when it comes to tanking them. Orcs' massive counter attack damage and Mnk's punching speed can kill the Mnk in the matter of seconds. Quadavs are much easier to tank, I could take down one Quadav per 5min solo... with the exception of Quadavs in Rolanberry Fields and Crawler's Nest - their TP attack can be deadly. Mnk works incredibly well with a Rdm or Whm in campaign. Protect 4 and Haste will allow the Mnk to double his killing power and tank almost any mob (except Orcs, again). Ninja Paladin Krav (Asura) Moonlight Medal Subjob: /dnc is beastly, however /nin /rdm /whm and /war are known to work well Gear Build: I use a Shield skill/VIT build with pld, with enough Accuracy to ensure you make contact. Macro in as much enmity+ as you can for hate generating abilities. Iron Ram pieces are excellent for the Magic Defense and enmity bonuses. Pld/dnc results are amazing. Often I can keep three or four NQ campaign mobs busy at a time, with relatively little effort in tanking one to two mobs. The only downside to /dnc is the lack of enmity generation... the enmity from damage dealing is lowered and the job abilities are dwarfed when compared to /war. Keeping hate on a mob that is surrounded by insane DDs is very difficult, with Animated Flourish being less effective than provoke. Fighting in a party can be beneficial, using divine waltz as a Curaga to pull moderate hate. With /dnc, if you don't engage a fresh mob well before the DDs do, you will have very little chance of keeping hate unless Sentinel is ready. When dealing with multiple enemies, try to move so they are still in front of you and in a position where your shield will block thier strikes. Using Reprisal when tanking multiples is invaluable if you need to get off a Cure IV on yourself. As a soloing job, pld/dnc is mostly idiot-proof when soloing only 1 mob of most types (even while weakened), however the the ability to actually kill said mob is a long process. The need for your TP to keep yourself alive without wasting all of your MP halts your use of weapon skills, often I will fight until I reach 300 TP and nearly full health, then unleash a Spirits Within (which can hit for nearly 1k when used under the effect of Body Boost), and then hope that a stray NM wont join the party while my tp is low. NMs will still mostly be un-soloable, nigh impossible to tank safely, however with enough people focused on the NM you can live through the ordeal. Use your job abilities intelligently and you can make this combination shine in campaign. Save Sentinel for mobs that are getting whacked around by the DDs (or if an NM takes a liking to you), and try to keep your finishing moves up with consistent Box Steps (or Quicksteps if your are having trouble making contact). Note: Invincible + Reprisal + Poisonhand Gnadgad = Good Times. Never forget Healing Waltz, your own personal Erase, which can remove any debuff that can be placed on you in campaign (except songs). Also be wary of Yagudo and their insanely annoying Feathered Furore (spelling?) ability, which can remove your weapon or shield, resetting your tp to 0 and making you smash your head on the keyboard. This job combination has yielded up to 4500 experience in a single fight (note: epic fight), however my average is 2500xp in a moderate fight. Usually, I end up with about 125-200% the XP that other people claim to receive in the same fight. Never forget that you are a Paladin. You are the first to die and the last to run. If you are freshly raised and still weakened, but see a whm running for his life from a few mobs, you get the hell in there and save the squishy mage. You gain your experience from taking damage, and often times the campaign XP loss from dying is far offset by the xp you earn while being killed. Enjoy pld/dnc, its a great combo and a staple of the campaign battlefield! Edit: Note that Atonement makes the xp gain off this combination even more incredible. The first battle I participated in after unlocking Atonement yielded 5005 experience, my personal highest. And this time, the fight wasn't some incredible 6-wave fight, it was a normal run-of-the-mill 2-3 wave fight. Enjoy! Puppetmaster Miaa /SCH /DNC I usually use either my Sharpshooter frame or my Valoredge frame. Sharp shooter is good for insane damage on Yagudo upon weapon skilling. Valoredge is great to keep HP filled (Role Reversal and Cannibal Blade). Using /DNC is an O.K. way to keep healed when using Sharpshooter frame. I usually prefer to use /SCH for Sublimation, Reraise, Raise, Protect and Shell. I've gotten some of my highest EXP on PUP with these methods. I advise against any of the 3 mage frames, as AoE from all monsters (except Quadav) will kill them quickly. Auraeon of Leviathan Moonlight Medal /WAR You'll want Soulsoother frame for this. Attachments are of little importance, aside from the obvious few for Soulsoother, like Damage Gauge and Mana Convert/Economizer. However, you will want to bring a couple Oils, just in case you're in a tight spot. Basically, you just Provoke an enemy and pull it off to the side. Have Soulsoother Cure V you while you tank, and it is as simple as that. You'll likely get very high EXP/LP and AN with this method because not only are you taking a lot of damage and dealing a lot of damage, but the automaton's Curing and melee hits both count toward your points, which allows you to cap almost every area of point accumulation in Campaign. PUP is among the best jobs for Campaign as far as getting points goes because of this fact alone. I suggest avoiding Ninja-type Yagudos with this method, as Soulsoother frame AI is still flawed in that it will prioritize removing enfeeble effects from you over Curing even when you get down into red HP, so a Ninja-type Yagudo spamming enfeebles on you virtually locks out all Cures from your automaton. Maybe some day Square-Enix will fix this. But until now, if you do Yagudo zones, try to avoid the Ninjas, or keep your finger over Role Reversal just in case (one way to counter this is to sub NIN to block enfeebling Ninjutsu from the enemy, but then you miss out on a ton of points because of the loss of damage dealt and damage taken with WAR sub.) Happy Campaigning! Ranger Unineko Starlight Medal /nin, /dnc As a ranger, you are the eyes of the army, and it's not a bad idea to track incoming units with widescan, you can also alert other players of the presence of kindred units as they don't appear in your log.(As of the July 2009 update, this seems to have been fixed.) You also quite literally do more damage to fortifications than almost anyone else. Just remember that there are no npc vendors in the past that sell ammunition, so you are limited to whatever you bring back to the past, can craft, or scavenge up. Red Mage Unineko /nin, /whm, /blu A Red Mage is extremely flexible, being able to heal, buff, debuff, and fight. Your strategy as a rdm therefore should change depending on what the situation calls for, if people and friendly npcs are taking a beating, help heal the wounded, raise the dead, and buff the people who need it. When fightng keep composure up, cast the appropriate enspells to maximize your melee damage, and debuff mobs as best as you can. Samurai Tauceftw (Sylph) Starlight Medal /dnc all the way I use the city camping method, then once I find a zone with a battle going on, get tags, select a Union, then I Meditate up, put on Hasso, and try and pull hate from an easier mob. Then once I have hate, stick with Third Eye/Seigan for tanking, using Meditate as a way to get tp in sticky situations, and heal myself with waltz and samba. For harder boss battles in campaign, I stick to a healthy balance of healing and damage with Hasso up. 2000-2600 per battle mostly, 1000-1100 during faster ones. Scholar If there are many NPCs who need healing, use the chance given to gain EXP from healing them. Otherwise, nuke and use helixes. Using Accession Protect/shell/stoneskin is a good idea, we all. A good tactic is to Aspirga a group of mobs using Manifestation. This will give you a nice boost of MP to continue your efforts. - Kirol, Caitsith. Krav (Asura) Moonlight Medal Sch/rdm past 68, before 68 /whm Scholar is on par with summoner in campaign battles in that if you accession a buff onto an npc, the buff will hit everyone in the area of effect regardless of party, PCs and NPCs alike. This appears to be limited to effecting a maximum of 15 people, yourself included if you are in range. This maximum effect applies to cures as well as buffs. For a good time, find a dense pile of wounded NPCs and Accession Rapture Cure IV on one of the npcs (add Divine Seal if /whm). This is, of course, instant death if there are any mobs in the mix, but can add up to huge amounts of HP healed (15k+). All from one spell. Also, don't forget that in order for a buff to count for an XP reward, it has to actually land on the target (Has no effect will not provide XP). That being said, the buff will overlap a protect or shell of the same level. So, you can spam your highest level protect/shell by accessioning them onto npcs, and as long as there is no higher level of pro/shell already active on them, you can land up to 15 buffs in one spell. If you notice another scholar around of a lower level (ie. does not have Shell IV and/or Protect IV), it may be a nice move to buff only up to the tier that scholar can cast to so both of you can benefit from this ability. It does not appear to effect xp if you buff with tier I buffs over tier 4 buffs. As scholar, be glad you can cast reraise on yourself, because all of these AOEs on everyone will gain you incredible hate. Use your judgment as to whether healing a pile of people for 1k each is worth the inevitable death afterwords. You also have the AOE debuffs able to be unloaded onto mobs. Sleepga II can be helpful for that one lone tank who got stuck with a 10 mob link, and the mobs in campaign do not appear to be particularly resistant to sleep. Manifestationing Gravity and Bind can help you kite and occupy large amounts of mobs until the DDs and tanks are free to handle them. It is also worth mentioning that the 15 person cap applies to Manifestation too, you will only be able to sleep up to 15 mobs in one casting. And, as Kirol mentioned, AOE Aspir filling your mp bar to full is an awesome help! Enjoy campaigning with scholar, you'll probably be one of the only people on the battlefield just begging for NPCs to join the fight! Summoner Sofi (Asura) /whm You'll be spending most of your time healing and raising to get the most EXP That you can. Prior to 65, use leviathans spring water, at 65 use healing ruby II from carbuncle. Have carbuncle attack when you can, and go around raising people. Doing this nets me about 1000-1500exp with the first ribbon. Don't bother with Blood pact: wards unless you don't care about EXP because it doesn't give you any.--Elsara 03:52, September 12, 2009 (UTC) Going to add, prior to 70 (or 65 if you have fenrir), you are basically playing as a healer that has a big AoE heal. To get the most out of your exp, you must must must play defensive missions, the more NPCs there are, the better the exp is for you when you AoE heal them. It is also worth mentioning that Carbuncle's Healing Ruby II will also heal fortifications. If there are so many NPCs that you are reaching your healing limit quickly, once you reach it, turn in your tags, and get a new set. This let me gain the most exp as I was able to get around the exp healing cap. --Elsara 07:10, November 5, 2009 (UTC) /WHM; Just melee with Carbuncle out(don't forget to Assault (Command), because i know i have a few times, and forgot tags 2) and skillchain (even if it does poor damage, its more exp for you) and do Healing Ruby II to heal Carby, yourself, and those around you to give even more exp. Taking damage gives you exp(believe it or not, and if you don't check this article about campaign battle exp- Campaign: Experience Point Calculation Guide). But if you don't have Healing Ruby II yet, use Leviathan's Spring Water because its the next best thing to Healing Ruby II. If all you do is melee, heal(NPCs, others, and yourself-avatar included) and skillchain(Sunburst then Poison Nails) you can actually get pretty nice exp/notes(depending on your medal, how much you actually do, and how long you were in the battle). I just got 2660 exp/1355 notes doing this with only Golden Star in a approx. 30-45 min battle. --Turnineye 08:10, October 9, 2009 (UTC) Kollosis (shiva)--Another sub job option to consider is /SCH. there is lots of debate about whether /whm or /sch is better, but for the purpose of campaign i find /sch to excel. you lose a small amount of mp with this sub but it doesnt matter bc you can utilize Sublimation once you ding 70 SMN. So pre 70 use /whm, but after i would suggest switching to /sch. As a 75 SMN my Sublimation generally brings in 230 mp back to my pool, which is very nice. another thing is you have access to Aspir later on, so thats even more MP recovery options allowing your avatars to have a longer lifespan dealing more dmg, which means more exp for you. which avatars you use is completely up to you however, as stated above, Carbuncle is a good choice... if you plan on healing. If you are looking more towards a DD route i would suggest Fenrir and Eclipse Bite. The reason being is that Fenrir has less perpetuation cost than all the other avatars depending on your gear. for the most part he will be your cheapest avatar besides Carbuncle for the average SMN. Have fun out there and GL ^^ Thief Vontomczak Sterling Star /nin I city camp. Refreshing the Regional map often and checking for starting battles. Generally speaking this is how I start. Once I've started a Campaign Battle in a zone where one has just recently started, I have a pretty good memory once that one's completed, of what zones still hadn't had one start and I'll check the Regional map to see if one has started and teleport right to it. I immediately sign up for a Union. Generally the one with the least amount of members to hopefully improve my chances for lotting on spoils. Strategy for THF is very basic. Having all your status bolts works wonders. Also, if there's a small group when you first start out, it's excellent for pulling another mob for a small group beating on things. Bar well geared PLD's and NIN's that know their job well, I usually end up blink tanking. When hate is pulled from me, a single Sneak Attack Dancing Edge is enough to take back hate. I bring a Haste+TP build gear set, a WS gear set and a Ranged Acc Gear set. For all intents and purposes, a THF's role is very much like your typical EXP party situations except you end up tanking more often than not, especially when you can put up good WS numbers. Average exp. 600 - 2,500. Foxfire Allied ribbon of Glory SSSS Subs: /NIN, /DNC. Using a thief is very linear, really. Simply use whatever sub suits you most, usually the two mentioned above. /NIN for shadows, means for usual survivability. However, DNC subjob would equal to the ability to heal, drain samba, etc. Keep in mind, to maximize your exp gain, you need to exploit every possible aspect of the battle. Therefore, moves such as Divine Waltz come in really handy in some situations, moreover when fighting BRD mobs such as Vuu Puqu, who tend to AoE sleep constantly. Being able to divine waltz means you're automatically waking up everyone in the direct vicinity, since, in a way, everyone participating in campaign is unofficially part of your party/alliance. course, this is what I understand, since Spring Water, Shining Ruby, and accession do the same. Depending on how long you spend in there, and how you play, your outcome will increase or decrease. For me, I get 600~2,000 as THF63~66. Taeken Moonlight Medal Subs: /NIN As a THF/NIN, your primary goal is to WS and SA as much as possible. For me, without haste gear, I can WS about every 50 seconds. For this reason I keep my SA separate from my WS. TA does not work on NPCs or PCs that are not in your party. To use TA, you must be in a party. Keep shadows up as it can help reduce the damage from AoE attacks from mobs. I can typically do around 800 damage per minute, so you can hit the cap very easily. Lovie Allied Ribbon of Glory SSSS Subs: /DNC I found /DNC to work a lot better than /NIN. As /DNC, with Accuracy Bonus and Quickstep, I could switch to DD food. This has quite an affect, especially at 61/62 when you are only hitting for 2-3 dmg. Additionally, Curing Waltz / Drain Samba has a large impact on the amount of XP gained as well. Started to solo some of the easier mobs at 64. Easy 1500 per battle of decent length, 2500-3000 if you have a party member or two for Sneak Attack / Trick Attack / Divine Waltz. Hit the exp cap (e.g. AN was more than half XP) quite often in lower ranks. Warrior Ah, Warrior. One of the most basic DD's in-game. And fortunately for you, one of the easiest to rack up exp and A. Notes with! However, there is still some art to using this job in Campaign battles. Just remember, unless in party or around several healing NPC's, Warrior is on it's own, with no native ability to heal itself or remove debuffs. At lower levels it may be a wise decision to go /Whm for battles, not only for Reraise (which you WILL be using often), but also for Bar spells (Barpetra in Pashow Marshlands Campaign, for example) and the ability to toss the occasional Erase or Cure III. Also, if you find that you're not in any danger of taking hate on a mob or from AOE's, it can be nice to use those cures on fellow campaigners as a complimentary way to boost your xp. Once you hit 70, though, jump straight to /Dnc if you have it leveled to 35. At this point you will have access to Healing Waltz for debuff removal, as well as your own form of Cure III through the TP-based Curing Waltz II. At 70-75, it's my opinion that this is BY FAR your best subjob option in terms of self-sustainment, period!! Note: I don't recommend /Nin for Campaign unless you just like throwing Gil away. Most AEO's will either ignore Utsusemi altogether, or take most of your shadows away with high recast timers. And as you near 75, you'll find that you become much more accurate and produce a MUCH higher damage output than you were previously doing. As such, you'll be drawing considerably more hate, making it even harder to keep shadows up. In Campaign, just leave shadows to the Ninjas. Besides, Retaliation is your friend!! If and when you do draw hate, use this and watch your damage output and TP soar. Then use that on Curing Waltz. =P. You can always throw up Defender if it starts getting ugly and survive most normal mobs. FOODS Before 70: At lower levels, try to stay full on Sushi. They're a little expensive, but the xp reward you'll gain from not swinging your G axe and hitting air will make them worth it! Oh, and don't use +1's if you can help it. They hurt your wallet much more when you get KO'd. Save those for your other jobs during endgame or BCNM's or something. After 70: Yay!!! Your hits are landing!! Even without sushi!! Who would have thunk it?! NOW you can start eating the CHEAP attack meats, such as the ever-beloved DD meat, Meat Mithkabobs. Before 74-75, you can still have the occasional issue with melee accuracy, so just throw up Aggressor to offset that and enjoy your kabobs! Mmm, yummy... Again, you will be getting KO'd on occasion (after all, it IS campaign), so avoid expensive foods like Meat Chiefkabobs and pizzas+1. 75WAR Shadowsaint / Titan server White Mage It was tough getting points simply healing. I suggest going /nin with 2 clubs/mauls and fight while casting offensive spells and healing. If you look on the calculator on this website, you'll see that enhancing spells on NPCs count for 10 points each. I usually Haste the generals every few minutes when there isn't much healing action going on. Caress (Unicorn) /RDM I play my WHM/RDM like I play my PLD/RDM or PLD/DNC, I pull and solo. The hard part about playing WHM/RDM is gear. Currently I have -30% Physical Reduction, soon to be -33%/34% when I get my next piece of gear. I use Genbu's Shield (-10%), Patronus Ring (-10%), Jelly Ring (-5%), & Cheviot's Cape (-5%). I am hoping to get the expansion pants with -4% or Goliard Trews with -3%. Once I have myself buffed with Stoneskin/Phalanx/Protectra V I pull my mob. Currently I wear Noble's Tunic, Walahara Turban, Blessed Mitts, Cleric Pantaloons (Which I plan to replace), Cleric Duckbills (Also replacing), Loqacious Earring, Brutal Earring, Swift Belt, Peacock Charm & wield a Purgatory Mace. My gear isn't perfect by far, but I'm still tweaking it. I am looking to get the Major Charm to replace my neck piece for Refresh so I can swap out my body for Reverend Mail to add more AC and negate the loss of my Peacock Charm. When I play I keep Afflatus Solace up so when I cure myself I get stoneskin so I can recast stoneskin. My weaponskill(s) of choice are Hexa Strike when my MP is fine, and Mystic Boon when I need MP. Typically my Mystic Boon restores 150-200 MP, which the occasional low for 50-100 and that is at 100% TP. With the setup I currently have I can "effectively" tank about 5 mobs at once. Though I won't say I last forever because usually I last about 10 minutes before I run out of MP and finally bite the dust. But I can tank two at the same time without much problem. Typically my reward for solo'ing a mob is about 2500XP & between 1500-2000 AN. If someone helps out I turn in my tag and refresh my tag and pull another. If during the campaign I can also heal others/raise, then I can usually top out around 4,000 XP/AN.